Kenya: Holcim won't buy out Bamburi Cement

Holcim said it has no intention of making a takeover offer for Bamburi Cement Ltd in Kenya if competition regulators allow its planned merger with Lafarge SA, Bloomberg reports.

“We have no intention of making a takeover offer for BCL,” Holcim said. Bamburi will continue to trade on the Nairobi Securities Exchange, it said.

Holcim, based in Switzerland, and Paris-based Lafarge SA are seeking antitrust backing for a planned US$40bn merger they intend to complete by the 1H15. Once the transaction is finished, Holcim will have indirect control of Bamburi, which is 58.6 per cent owned by two of Lafarge’s units – Fincem Holding Ltd and Kencem Ltd, according to a company statement in the Nairobi-based Daily Nation.

The Kenyan competition authority is examining Lafarge’s influence on cement prices in the country through its stake in Bamburi, the nation’s biggest producer of the building material, and through the 42 per cent stake in East Africa Portland Cement Co (EAPC), which is ranked third in the country.

The authority has said Lafarge may have to dilute some of its interest in EAPC if the company is found to have a dominant position in the industry in violation of antitrust legislation.

Kenya, east Africa’s biggest economy, has seven cement producers, including ARM Cement Ltd, National Cement Co, Mombasa Cement Ltd, Savannah Cement Ltd and Cemtech Ltd.